American Ninja

Audience Reviews

View More

Hagrid R Feb 24, 2019 The Bottom Line A basic action movie from the '80s but it doesn't hold up. Plot An American soldier with special skills gets posted to an island base where someone keeps hijacking military convoys. When his convoy gets hit, he's cooperating right up until someone hits the Colonel's daughter, and then he intervenes. His memory of his childhood is mostly gone from an explosion on an island, but he has obviously had training. When the hijackers send Ninjas after him, it becomes obvious though that his skills are way more than just simple techniques. What I Liked Some of the basic fight scenes are fine, particularly between Joe and the Black Star Ninja. And the opening sequence is really well done. There's a scene where they shoot arrows at him, and he uses the handle on a shovel to deflect their trajectory...highly iconic and when I first saw it as a kid, I was hooked. What I Didn't Like I rewatched it recently, and it just doesn't hold up. As I said, some of the basic fight scenes are good, but the fight scenes with guns seems more like a Stephen J. Cannell TV show where a million bullets are fired but nothing ever hits its target. In addition, some of the stunt work is either done at low speed, shows that it isn't the actor doing the stunt (particularly a motorcycle jump), or in one case, requires a helicopter to hover in place for about 5 seconds for the stunt man to get ready to jump on the front. See more

Poe S Jul 4, 2018 When it was released, it was great.

Albus S Apr 29, 2018 Totally goofy 80 ninja nonsence :D

Rey L Dec 31, 2017 American Ninja is a perfectly passable, schlocky piece of 1980's action. It's about a soldier in the American military named Joe (Michael Dudikoff) who has memory loss. He also happens to be a secret ninja. He and his comrades, including his girlfriend Patricia (Judie Aronson) and his macho friend Curtis (Steve James), are in danger because some evil Asian ninjas are after them, for reasons that are probably explained but I didn't catch. It's not my fault necessarily, the movie is just really bad. Although, of the three movies, American Ninja is probably the best (technically). Joe isn't actually that likeable of a hero. He does the whole "silent but deadly" thing, but here it doesn't come out as awesome. It just comes out as confusing and irritating. It seems like if I was one of the other characters, Joe would get on my nerves because he NEVER ANSWERS ANYONE'S QUESTIONS and insists on being mysterious and cool. Most of the characters are cliche: Patricia is just a random damsel in distress, and Curtis is the tough Black commando. And both of these characters didn't like Joe at first, but after he did, like, one thing that was cool, they both warmed up to him 100%. Curtis challenges Joe to a fight, and Joe basically just pulls the exact same fight move on Curtis a bunch of times, and then Curtis admits that he was wrong about Joe and that he's actually cool because he just rolled him around a few times. So the characters, who happen to be cut-outs, develop way too quickly. And at one point, someone says that Joe's date of birth is unknown... so is it possible for him to be like, 50 years old? Here's another thing about this movie: the action is fairly boring. It's mostly the dialogue that keeps you invested (at all) in the story. The first American Ninja is, as a movie, the best of these three movies. I'm giving it a C. But it's not the most entertaining... See more

Han S Nov 19, 2017 Cannon Group Golan-Globus Productions were having great success with their previous ninja films, "Enter the Ninja," "Revenge of the Ninja," and "Ninja III: The Domination," so why not start a new franchise? Michael Dudikoff plays the titular American Ninja, a G.I. on a U.S. Army base in the Philippines. He keeps his ninja skills a secret, even when fellow soldier Steve James challenges him to a fight (don't worry, the two become fast friends after Dudikoff repeatedly flips James and chokes him out), but when Dudikoff uncovers arms dealers colluding with military officials, he is one ninja who's had all he can stand sand can't stands n'more. To be clear, this is a terrible film, but if you enjoy campy 1980s ninja films, which I most certainly do, you will enjoy this ridiculous ninja/Rambo hybrid. FUN FACT: Director Sam Firstenberg has said this is one of his two favorite films he's directed, the other being "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." Personally speaking, I think "Ninja III: The Domination" is his career high point. See more

Anakin L Sep 17, 2017 Great movie , watched when was young and still good , rest people can write bad reviews but they compare new with old .

Read all reviews

American Ninja

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING